Odd Warrior has been around for some time now, and since Baku the Mooneater was added to the game to provide you with a huge amount of late-game staying power. With this minion in your deck, your Hero Power is upgraded to provide four points of Armor rather than the usual two.

You're restricted to including only odd-cost cards in this deck as a result, but the idea is that you should be able to outlast just about anyone you encounter on the ladder. With an infusion of new Dragon cards from the Rastakhan’s Rumble set, Odd Warrior gets even more survival and control options.

In our guide to playing Odd Warrior, we've got a snapshot of the most powerful deck list currently seeing play on the Standard ladder, and provided comprehensive strategy advice for playing it properly. We've also got a guide to the best cards to keep in the Mulligan phase and a breakdown of the combos in this exact list. Finally, we've highlighted the key cards, along with substitute possibilities.

UPDATE - JANUARY #2

Odd Warrior continues to be a very popular deck in the current stage of the Ratakhan meta, but it's a deck list that's stabilised very quickly. There are no changes to the format in our latest update, but we'll keep checking in on this one for as long as it's seeing play.

Odd Warrior deck list and strategy

Warrior

Neutral

2 x Eternium Rover

2 x Stonehill Defender

2 x Omega Assembly

2 x Dragonmaw Scorcher

2 x Shield Slam

1 x Zilliax

2 x Reckless Flurry

2 x Crowd Roaster

2 x Shield Block

1 x Baku the Mooneater

2 x Smolderthorn Lancer

1 x Ysera

2 x Brawl

1 x Ysera

2 x Dyn-o-matic

2 x Emberscale Drake

2 x Supercollider

1 x Dr. Boom, Mad Genius

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Odd Warrior is a control-oriented deck that uses the upgraded Tank Up! Hero Power from Baku the Mooneater to build a huge pool of Armor that will help you out-live opponents. It also features so many defensive options that you’re able to comfortably remove all of the opponent's threats and eventually send them into Fatigue.

With Rastakhan’s Rumble, the core of the deck remains relatively intact, while new additions in the form of a Dragon package round out the list with some useful tools Warrior has lost or was forced to give up to meet the Odd card only restriction. With that utility back in the deck, it can be a seriously competitive deck once again.

Early game: You can spend a lot of your early turns using your Hero Power to steadily build up some Armor, along with an early Eternium Rover play. The damage from your opponent’s early minions should only dent it a little. Whatever the case, you’re in no massive rush here to play cards.

Mid game: As you approach the mid game, you’ll want to start taking a more proactive approach at dealing with your opponent’s minions. You should have built up a fairly healthy Armor pool with Shield Block and Emberscale Drake that’ll make Shield Slam capable of taking out almost any target. That stack of Armor can also clear out a wide board thanks to Reckless Flurry, or you can also go for a classic Brawl if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Supercollider is another way to clear out your opponent’s minions if they’ve positioned them poorly.

Late game: Entering the late game, you’ll want to continue removing threats as and when they pop up using Crowd Roaster and the execute effect on Smolderthorn Lancer. Your opponent shouldn’t have too much left at this stage, and that’s good because you’re just warming up. Dr. Boom, Mad Genius gives you so many options in the late game through a new Hero Power that cycles after each turn. Once you hit ten Mana, Omega Assembly becomes another way to generate huge value over your opponent and run them out of the match completely.

Aggro opponents

Here are some words of advice for dealing with aggro decks:

1. This deck is packed with removal so you can use it quite freely, but try to entice aggro decks to over-extend on the board so you can punish with a large clear.

2. Stonehill Defender and Zilliax are annoying taunt minions that will slow fast decks down to a crawl.

3. Dyn-o-matic works particularly well against aggro too, and the damage won’t affect any of your mechs.

4. Once you’ve starved them of resources you can start taking a more aggressive approach in the game and push for damage.

Control opponents

Next, here are some things to keep in mind when you’re up against fellow control decks on the ladder:

1. Even though you probably seem evenly matched, this deck packs so much value that you can likely outlast many other control decks.

2. With that in mind, feel free to take it especially slowly in the early game, just generating Armor rather than playing cards, simply because you have the Mana spare to do so.

3. Shield Slam is excellent at dealing with your opponent’s largest threats.

4. It’s also very good to combine your one damage effects with the execute effect on Smolderthorn Lancer to kill off your opponent’s largest minions.

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Odd Warrior Mulligan guide

Get yourself off to a strong start by looking for these cards in your opening hand.

1. Eternium Rover: A solid early game minion that contests the opponent's early plays and also starts building up those Armor reserves.

2. Stonehill Defender: A strong taunt minion to slow aggro in the early game, while also generating you an extra card for later on.

3. Shield Slam: You'll be building up a lot of Armor in each game, and Shield Slam can be used to obliterate the most problematic minion on the board.

4. Shield Block: Some decent early game card draw that will also start to build up your Armor pool.

Odd Warrior tips, combos and synergies

In this section we'll break down all of the core combos that exist in this exact version of Odd Warrior:

- Shield Slam's strength is equal to that of your current Armor value at the time of casting. Shield Block can be used to boost your current Armor reserves, while your upgraded Hero Power is another obvious source of power.

- Play Omega Assembly with ten Mana in the bank if at all possible. That way you'll get to keep all three Mechs that are drawn as part of the Discovery process.

- Once cast, Reckless Flurry will dish out an amount of damage equal to your current Armor level to every minion on the board. Note that you lose your Armor in the process.

- As Odd Warrior is unable to run execute you can instead include Smolderthorn Lancer to give you that hard removal option. You need to be holding a Dragon in hand, plus the targeted minion needs to be damaged for it to work, but there are multiple ways to meet these parameters in the deck.

- The damage spat out randomly by Dyn-o-matic will not harm Mech class minions, so don't worry about your own side of the board in this context.

- New weapon Supercollider will force the target you use it on to attack an adjacent enemy minion. If you can line this up in such a way that they destroy each other in the process, that's the dream scenario.

- If you can work the board in order to increase the odds of getting a good result from Brawl, do so!

- Zilliax is a Magnetic minion, which means you can combine it with another Mech by placing it to the left of the target. The stats and effects of both Mechs are then combined into one entity. If you want the minions to remain isolated from each other, drop it to the right of the target.

- Dr. Boom, Mad Genius grants you five new Hero Powers once he's been played. You'll cycle between the following possibilities at random:

Blast Shield

Delivery Drone

KABOOM!

Micro-Squad

Zap Cannon

- At the end of your turn, Ysera will add a Dream card to your hand for free. These can be incredibly strong minions or spells that can be extremely useful depending on the current state of the game.

Card choices and substitutes

Odd Warrior now contains both a Mech package and a Dragon package that work surprisingly well together. Here are some of the key cards in the deck:

Omega Assembly: You always want to save this for the ten Mana bonus as it’ll give you a huge amount of extra value in the late game.

Shield Slam: The upgrade to Tank Up! means you’ll be generating more Armor compared to your standard Hero Power, making this removal even more effective.

Reckless Flurry: Again, with all that extra Armor generation you can execute some substantial board clears with this card.

Smolderthorn Lancer: Works as the deck’s version of Execute. You’ll need to be holding a Dragon in hand for the ability to trigger, but that shouldn’t be an issue with the number
you run in Odd Warrior.

Brawl: Perfect for thinning out the board if you’re getting rushed down. Play a cheap minion on your side along with it and see if luck is with you.

Emberscale Drake: Remember Shieldmaiden? Here she is again but in a new Dragon form. An excellent card for the cost that’ll generate you some Armor, while also putting a decent body on the board.

Supercollider: A unique weapon that allows you to exploit the positioning of opposing minions to force them to deal damage to themselves. You can consider adding a Gorehowl here if you don’t have two copies in your collection.

Zilliax: A strong control card that can also be paired with many of the Mech minions in this deck for an even bigger impact.

Crowd Roaster: Hugely impactful Battlecry effect that should be able to kill most minions with ease.

Dr. Boom, Mad Genius: The Doc returns in a new form, one that offers some insane late game value and exciting mech synergy.

Baku the Mooneater: You don’t really want to play this as a minion unless you have to - it’s mainly in the deck for the improved Hero Power at the start of the game.

Ysera: Adds even more late game potential to the deck with all the Dream cards she adds to your hand, giving you more minions or powerful spells that can finish off the game.

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